The board of directors of the Mancos Water Conservancy District is concerned about the advance and possible infestation of zebra and quagga mussels into the Jackson Gulch Reservoir. 

Don't move a mussel! That's the theme of a campaign to prevent the spread of zebra and quagga mussels to Colorado lakes.

State and federal officials have confirmed that quagga mussel larvae have been found at Lake Granby, the large reservoir in Grand County. The Colorado Division of Wildlife has joined with the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S.

The mussel-coated debris is unmistakable evidence of an event occurring silently and largely out of sight — the colonization of the Colorado River by the quagga mussel, a fingernail-size Eurasian bivalve with an astonishing sex drive and a nasty reputation for causing economic and ecological havoc.

Finding a place to drop the props, throttle up the outboard and rip across the water is getting hard in Colorado, as Jefferson Lake joins the list of lakes restricting or banning motorboats to fight zebra mussels. Officials can't say how long the battle against the invasive species will last.

Grand Lake, Shadow Mountain Reservoir and Lake Granby have been deemed ‘high priority’ in the state for taking action to prevent infiltration of non-native zebra mussels — and that may mean implementing a boat inspection program when funding becomes available, according to Colorado Division of Wildlife